The
Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen for five
years declared a two-week cease-fire starting Thursday in response to United
Nations calls for peace as the world battles the coronavirus pandemic.

After
making his appeal last month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported
last week that parties to conflicts in multiple countries have expressed their
acceptance, including those in Cameroon, Libya, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.

U.N.
efforts are focused not just for the sake of quieting those conflicts, but to
give humanitarian groups and governments a better chance of delivering badly
needed aid and to try to prevent the spread of the virus among some of the
world’s most vulnerable communities.

The
International Rescue Committee issued a new report Thursday calling attention
to those issues. It specifically noted essential medical equipment that
has been scarce in hard-hit places like the United States and parts of Europe,
while “many conflict-affected and fragile countries have virtually none to
begin with.”

The
report says only half of Yemen’s hospitals are fully functional, while
two-thirds of the country’s population does not have access to health care.
It also pointed to a shortage of intensive care unit beds and ventilators
in South Sudan, northern Syria and Venezuela.

Worldwide
there are about 1.5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease with
89,000 deaths.

Many
countries have instituted lockdowns to prevent people from going to school or
work, or to conduct nonessential shopping, in hopes of stopping new
transmissions.

Japan
enacted a state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas earlier this week, and on
Thursday its health ministry reported a record 500 new confirmed cases.

Some
leaders have expressed confidence that their country has seen the worst of the
outbreak already and can look toward restarting some aspects of normal life.

The
Czech Republic on Thursday is allowing the reopening of hobby supply and
building supply stores. The country has reported 5,000 total infections
and Health Minister Adam Vojtech said Wednesday data showed it had “so far
prevented the worst.”

The
United States has by far the most cases in the world with about 430,000.
The biggest cluster is in the state of New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo
on Wednesday praised stay-at-home efforts as working while stressing to people,
“We can’t stop now.”

More
than 6,000 people have died in New York from the coronavirus. The state
reported a record-high 779 deaths on Wednesday.

However,
Cuomo this week has pointed to reductions in hospital admissions as a sign the
situation in his state could soon be brighter.